Private Equity

Most shelves were full yesterday at Boscov's in Plymouth Meeting Mall, but the scene of normalcy concealed the turbulence rattling the region's only surviving family-owned department store chain. The Reading company, in the hunt for a private-equity deal to rescue it from a potential merchandise shortage ahead of the critical fall shopping season, has waded into the kind of troubled waters that pulled California department store Mervyn's L.L.C. into Chapter 11 bankruptcy yesterday.

Democrats love to bash the private-equity firm Bain Capital and its former chief executive, Mitt Romney, as evil "vulture capitalists" bent on destroying America's middle class and shipping jobs overseas. From the din of the attack ads and the relentless recitation of talking points on cable news in this presidential election year, you might think the party of JFK and FDR had a serious problem with private-equity firms, which specialize in leveraged buyouts of ailing companies.

Most shelves were full yesterday at Boscov's in Plymouth Meeting Mall, but the scene of normalcy concealed the turbulence rattling the region's only surviving family-owned department store chain. The Reading company, in the hunt for a private-equity deal to rescue it from a potential merchandise shortage ahead of the critical fall shopping season, has waded into the kind of troubled waters that pulled California department store Mervyn's L.L.C. into Chapter 11 bankruptcy yesterday.

Hamilton Lane, a Bala Cynwyd pension adviser and money manager, said yesterday that it sold a 40 percent stake in the company to an investment group that includes Bill Gates. The firm, which specializes in private-equity deals - investments other than stocks, bonds and real estate - declined to disclose terms of the transaction. "We're positioning ourselves to grow in an industry that is going through some consolidation," said Leslie A. Brun, the firm's chairman and founder.

Pennsylvania's state pension systems say their "alternative investments" - private equity, venture capital, and hedge funds - are more profitable than traditional stocks and bonds. But you'd have to take their word for it. Unlike their counterparts in some other big states, the pension plans that invest on behalf of 450,000 current and retired Pennsylvania state employees and teachers don't report how well - or badly - each alternative-investment manager is doing. And the pension systems, controlled by politicians and political appointees, want to make sure it stays that way: Three bills in the General Assembly would guarantee that pension managers could continue withholding that information, and more, by suspending the state Right to Know law. State Rep. Robert W. Godshall (R., Montgomery)

"No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty-five years" - U.S. Constitution, Article II, Section 1 By John E. Sununu The Constitution may be the foundation of American democracy, but the qualifications...

Eric Berg joined SunGard Availability Services, Wayne, as chief executive last year. The subsidiary of SunGard Data Systems helps companies plan for and recover from disasters that stop their computer systems. Sales totaled $1.5 billion last year, about 30 percent of the parent company's total revenue. Question: SunGard considered selling Availability Services three years ago; instead, the whole company was taken private. What happened? Answer: SunGard, Comdisco and IBM used to be the three big competitors in availability services.

To many observers, it seems strange that two investor groups interested in buying Philadelphia Media Network Inc. have been rebuffed in their attempts to submit bids. Philanthropist Raymond Perelman and developer Bart Blatstein have each complained about being denied the chance to make an offer for The Inquirer, the Philadelphia Daily News, and Philly.com. PMN's owners, a group of financial-investment firms led by privately held hedge funds Alden Global Capital and Angelo, Gordon & Co., won't say why. Neither will Evercore Partners Inc., the New York investment bank hired to manage the sale of the parent company of the media properties.

As boss of a big, publicly traded industrial business, Peter McCausland , executive board chairman and former CEO of Radnor-based Airgas Inc. , has fought off buyout funds and other "private equity" investors trying to make money at his company's expense. He says it is awfully unfair that federal law lets those high-living fund managers pocket their multimillion-dollar fees, subject only to a 15 percent capital-gains tax, instead of the higher income and payroll taxes that Airgas's 14,000-plus employees - managers to truck drivers - have to pay. Early this year, McCausland, a Republican, sent letters decrying unfair, uneven federal taxes to his U.S. senators - Democrat Robert P. Casey and Republican Pat Toomey - among others in Congress.

Gardner Denver Inc., an industrial equipment maker with a small headquarters office in Wayne, agreed to be purchased by private-equity firm KKR & Co. for about $3.7 billion after KKR raised an earlier offer. KKR, run by Henry Kravis and George Roberts, will pay $76 a share for Gardner Denver, the companies said Friday in a statement. That's a 39 percent premium to the price on Oct. 24, the day before the company announced it was exploring a sale. KKR last month offered $75 a share, Bloomberg News reported Feb. 21. "The long-term future of Gardner Denver is bright," Pete Stavros, head of KKR's industrials team, said in the statement.

Dell Inc., the personal-computer maker that lost almost a third of its value last year, is in buyout talks with private-equity firms, two people with knowledge of the matter said. Dell, based in Round Rock, Texas, is discussing going private with at least two firms, said one of the people, who declined to be identified because the talks are private. The discussions are preliminary and could fall apart because the firms may not be able to line up the needed financing or resolve how to exit the investment in the future, the people said.

TIANJIN, China - Three years ago, Gary Biehn, a partner with White & Williams in Philadelphia, wanted to expand his law firm's reach to this port city in northern China, an economic powerhouse that gets special attention from the country's central planners. The firm already had a business tie to a law firm in Shanghai and saw benefits to connecting with Chinese lawyers here. Biehn reached out to the International Visitors Council of Philadelphia, and a string of calls and connections that played out over the last year culminated in a business agreement signed here Monday under the eye of Mayor Nutter and his Tianjin counterpart, Huang Xingguo.

By Farah Stockman Last week, my friend Andy, a hedge-fund guru, sent me a memo titled "Three Steps to Fiscal Solvency. " It was based on the premise that if America were a company, it would be in pretty bad shape. We spend far more than we take in. Our liabilities are mounting. Our assets are pretty much flat. Andy got rich thinking outside the box. So I wasn't entirely surprised to see his list of things that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney - who made his fortune in private equity - might do to improve America's bottom line.

As boss of a big, publicly traded industrial business, Peter McCausland , executive board chairman and former CEO of Radnor-based Airgas Inc. , has fought off buyout funds and other "private equity" investors trying to make money at his company's expense. He says it is awfully unfair that federal law lets those high-living fund managers pocket their multimillion-dollar fees, subject only to a 15 percent capital-gains tax, instead of the higher income and payroll taxes that Airgas's 14,000-plus employees - managers to truck drivers - have to pay. Early this year, McCausland, a Republican, sent letters decrying unfair, uneven federal taxes to his U.S. senators - Democrat Robert P. Casey and Republican Pat Toomey - among others in Congress.

Don't look now, but the Burlington Coat Factory retail chain is closing in on opening its 500th store. As of the end of its second quarter, on July 28, the Burlington, N.J.-based company had 482 stores. Last Friday, it opened a 92,000-square-foot flagship location on Union Square in Manhattan - its sixth store in New York. On a conference call with financial analysts last week, executives said the company will open 22 new stores by the end of the year. Not bad for a Bain Capital -owned property, eh?

Democrats love to bash the private-equity firm Bain Capital and its former chief executive, Mitt Romney, as evil "vulture capitalists" bent on destroying America's middle class and shipping jobs overseas. From the din of the attack ads and the relentless recitation of talking points on cable news in this presidential election year, you might think the party of JFK and FDR had a serious problem with private-equity firms, which specialize in leveraged buyouts of ailing companies.

Ownership of another Philadelphia-area refinery is about to change. NuStar Energy L.P. said it would sell 50 percent of its asphalt operations, which include refineries in Paulsboro, N.J., and Savannah, Ga., to a joint venture in a transaction expected to be completed by Sept. 30. Lindsay Goldberg L.L.C., a New York private-equity firm with $10 billion under management, will pay $175 million for a 50 percent interest in the joint venture, with San Antonio-based NuStar holding the other 50 percent stake.

Meatballs in sweet tomato sauce. With pickles? And vinegar peppers? That's what Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney ordered, in a Shorti hoagie, at a Bucks County Wawa last weekend, as my colleague Tom Fitzgerald reported. Whatever that particular mix of sweet and sour is supposed to be, it's not Philly food. My mother-in-law, Eileen Schach, who grew up feeding a farm household and whose sister became one of the most feared caterers on Pittsburgh's North Side, assures me the German Pennsylvanians she grew up with don't pile those things together on their serving boards, either.